Ireland’s Russian community last week paid homage to all who lost their lives during hostilities at a special event to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Around 450 people from Ireland, Russia, Poland, Belarus, the Czech Republic and the Baltics took part in the Memory Day event at Dublin’s Clontarf Castle on Sunday 9 May.
The day featured a ‘war memories’ contest, where students of all ages recited poems, presented short drama sketches and performed music and dance pieces which evoked images of the war.
Anna Gurarij from White Crane School in Galway was selected as the overall winner, and she and her mother will now travel to the Altai Mountains in Siberia for 25 July to attend the annual drama festival hosted by acclaimed writer and filmmaker Vasily Shukshin.
Sergey Petrovich, deputy head of mission of the Russian Embassy and one of the judging panel, said: “It is important that our children take part in this act [which helps towards] the preservation of the Russian language and culture in the course of their integration into Irish society. ”
Memory Day was organised by Eurolog-Ireland, an organisation that promotes Russian language, heritage and culture in Ireland, together with the Dublin Russian Theatre.
The event was supported by the Russian Embassy, the Altai regional administration and the Russian governmental development agency Rossotrudnich-estvo.
